When the famed Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, a smaller track sat right off to its edge - the Daytona Beach Kennel Club. The track was a greyhound racing facility owned by John Masoni.
As an effort to promote the track and bolster betting... errr, races, Masoni lauched a race team in 1960 and hired mechanic Ray Fox to lead his efforts. He hired Junior Johnson as his driver, and *BOOM* just like that Fox and Johnson won the second annual Daytona 500. Johnson won twice more in 1960 before moving on to Rex Lovette's Holly Farms Chicken Pontiac team in 1961.
Though not at the same level as in 1960, Masoni returned in 1961 and ended up fielding cars for a handful of drivers. After putting established drivers such as Jim Paschal and Marvin Panch in his cars, Masoni gave young South Carolina driver Davie Pearson a shot in the World 600 - though late in the game.
A week before the 600, Richard Petty and Joe Weatherly won twin qualifying races. Their wins set them up for a front row start in the following Sunday's 600 and eased any anxiety they may have had about qualifying. Of course, neither driver ever showed much outward anxiety about their racing efforts anyway.
NASCAR sanctioned two Grand National points races in California as the regulars were in North Carolina. Lloyd Dane won at Riverside's road course the same day the good ol' boys ran the qualifying races in Charlotte. Eddie Gray then won a 100-mile race at the famed Ascot Stadium the day before the 600. No one in either race was a regular on NASCAR's GN circuit, so it's not as if anyone paid a points price for going coast to coast to coast in a matter of a few days.
Ralph Earnhardt finished second to Petty in the first qualifying race, and Johnson was runner-up to Weatherly in the second qualifying race. Unlike Daytona, however, where the qualifying races help set the odd and even starters, Charlotte's heats set only the front row. The remainder of the cars had to re-qualify for position in the days leading up to the 600.
Between Sunday and midweek, Johnson bailed from Masoni's car and latched on with the Holly Farms ride. Needing a driver, Masoni reached out to Pearson who hadn't even raced in the twin qualifying heats. The 1960 Rookie of the Year had made a handful of starts in 1961 with results that were all over the board. He jumped at the chance to get in Masoni's car and promptly put down the quickest lap during Wednesday's session to lock in the third starting position.
Despite finishing second in his qualifying race, Earnhardt ended up starting sixth in the 600 in Cotton Owens' Pontiac - the team Pearson joined in 1963.
The Petty team entered a second car for the 600. Family patriarch and the all-time winningest NASCAR driver (at the time), Lee Petty, continued his recovery from injuries suffered in a savage, over-the-wall accident at Daytona in February. Yet the team soldiered forward.
Richard raced his yet-to-be-famous #43 1961 Plymouth, and California's Marvin Porter was hired to pilot the team's #44 year-old Plymouth. Porter finished fifth in his qualifying race yet didn't fare so well when he re-qualified 31st. Things turned worse in the 600 when an engine failure doomed the effort to 45th place finish in the 55-car field.
Little Joe got the jump on Ol' Blue at the start. Weatherly led the first lap before Pearson jumped from his third starting spot to lead the next lap.
Weatherly rallied back to lead the next few laps before Earnhardt put Cotton's Pontiac in the wind to lead 75 of the next 120 laps or so.
As the race neared halfway, Earnhardt faded a bit as Petty, Pearson, and Fireball Roberts hogged the top three spots. The trio exchanged the lead after each led a chunk of laps and set themselves up for the final quarter of the race.
Several laps shy of lap 300; however, the caution waved for a vicious accident. Reds Kagle tore through the guardrail between turns three and four. His car came to a sudden stop as the guardrail pierced through the car mangling Kagle's left leg. Remarkably, Kagle survived though he did lose his leg to the accident.
When the race returned to green after about 25 caution laps to tend to Kagle, Pearson seized the lead. While running second with about 70 laps to go, Petty's engine met the fate of his teammate. The pole winner, who had already endured engine failures in a few other races earlier in the season, cruised helplessly to the garage and had to wait another day for his third win of the season.
With his toughest competitor sidelined, Pearson built a three-lap lead over Fireball. Fox was in position to lead his team to another big win - when racing luck turned against him and Pearson.
As Pearson headed down the back stretch on lap 398 and looking for the white flag, his right rear tire blew. Being on the backstretch helped him a bit as he didn't spin. In the era before safety inner liners, Pearson's tire went kablooey and collapsed to the rim. He dropped to the apron and slowed his speed to a crawl in an attempt just to keep the car going straight for the next one and a half laps.
Fireball stayed in the gas to make up as much lost time as possible. Though he made up a lap and then some on the leader, Pearson coaxed his car around the final four corners to score his first career NASCAR Grand National victory.
The next to last event of the 28-race 1973 Winston Cup season was the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 1973 schedule is tied with 1985 for the fewest Cup races in the modern era.
The primary story line entering the race was the tight points battle going on between Richard Petty's pursuit of this third consecutive title, Cale Yarborough, independents James Hylton and Cecil Gordon, and the underdog contender Benny Parsons. But Charlotte's race weekend ended up having plenty of unexpected, supplemental story lines.
Fred Lorenzen abandoned Hoss Ellington's Chevrolet in late 1972 after deeming the car as non-competitive. Ellington phoned Charlie Glotzbach to offer him a handful of rides during the season, and Glotzbach accepted the challenge.
Chargin' Charlie wore out the field on the first day of qualifying day to claim the pole. David Pearson who may have held a bit back during practice ended up laying down the quickest lap before Glotzbach's run knocked him off the pole. Afterwards, Glotzbach said to the media "I didn't figure on Pearson running that fast. I thought the man I had to beat was Cale. That Pearson must have been sandbagging." Yarborough qualified third followed by Bobby Allison and Petty.
Rapid fire, up-to-the-minute, news blurbs are available at our fingertips today via Twitter. Back in the day, however, folks (at least South Carolinians) had Gene Granger’s notes columns – including an ooh that had to hurt yet funny update on Marty Robbins.
On Saturday as final tech inspections and qualifying began, NASCAR uttered the words made famous by Lee Corso on ESPN: Not so fast my friend. Inspectors determined Ellington's team had monkeyed with the required carburetor restrictor plate.
Glotzbach's pole-winning time was disallowed, and he was forced to re-qualify in the last session. Though fastest in the session, he had to start his #28 Chevy in 36th position.
Source: Spartanburg Herald-Journal via Google News Archive
David Pearson was elevated from second to the top starting spot with Cale alongside him. With Pearson up front, he and the Wood Brothers' #21 Purolator Mercury began a streak of 11 consecutive poles at Charlotte stretching to the 1978 National 500. Bobby Allison was moved to third and Richard Petty to fourth.
Starting 17th in Junie Donlavey’s #90 Truxmore Ford was an established Carolina late model hot shoe making his Cup debut: Handsome Harry Gant. As Gant readied for his first Cup start, another legendary driver was making his final one.
Wendell Scott made a return from a savage wreck at Talladega several weeks earlier to make one final start. He put Doc Faustina’s #5 Kmart Dodge Charger in the field in 38th starting spot.
The field lined up and ready for the green.
Glotzbach's weekend went from good to bad to worse. After winning - and then losing - the pole, he then crashed coming out of turn 4 on lap 47. Pearson plowed right into Glotzbach, and the pole winner's day was done. Darrell Waltrip who was still looking to make a favorable impression upon car owner Bud Moore also found himself collected in the melee. Cale and Richard dodged the accident and continued on to the finish.
Cale dominated about two-thirds of the race in Junior Johnson’s #11 Kar Kare Chevy. He led 257 of the race’s 334 laps. Though he and Petty swapped the lead from time to time, The King led only 52 laps and finished second to Yarborough – the only other car on the lead lap.
Cale held on and went to victory lane. Colbert Seagraves, son of R.J. Reynolds' executive Ralph Seagraves, joined the Junior Johnson team in victory lane and got the opportunity to hold the winner’s trophy.
Source: Colbert Seagraves
Gant finished a respectable 11th in his Cup debut, and Wendell Scott went out on a high note. He rallied from 38th starting spot to finish 12th. Parsons finished fourth and held a slim points lead heading into the final race of the season at Rockingham - a race in which he experienced a career of highs and lows in one day.
Dick Trickle finished fifth in his only Cup start of 1973 and just his third career start. He raced a #1 Richard Howard-owned Chevy and a teammate of sorts to Yarborough.
Long-time hard charger Buddy Baker completed 228 of 334 laps. During the race, NASCAR officials informed Baker's crew chief Harry Hyde that they planned to inspect the #71 Dodge's restrictor plate after the race. Hyde and car owner Nord Krauskopf said "nope". They ordered Baker to park the car, and the team left CMS. Consequently, NASCAR DQ'd Baker and placed him 41st, last in the running order.
Source: Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Allison finished third in his self-owned Chevy but raised a ruckus as soon as the checkered flag fell. He paid a $100 fee and protested the cars of Yarborough and Petty. Allison believed their engines may have been oversized or something else was amiss allowing them to generate more HP than his engine. NASCAR insisted all cars were going to be checked despite Allison's protest.
Source: Spartanburg Herald-Journal
CMS president and promoter Richard Howard was very vocal in his support of Cale as the winner. His support was certainly expected. After all, Howard just happened to be the listed car owner of Yarborough's Chevy (as well as for Trickle's fifth-place car).
A day later, NASCAR conceded its inspection process could use some improvements. Yet, they refunded Allison his protest fee and said the finishing order would stand. The race was the tenth of 31 times that King and Cale finished in the top two spots.
As a native North Carolinian, Schaefer Hall of Fame co-founder Philly grew up going to races at tracks such as Rockingham, Wilkesboro, Martinsville, and Charlotte. He and I met when both of us were living in Chattanooga. In May 1994, he suggested we go to the 1994 Coca-Cola 600. Done, I'm in.
The two of us, our wives, and their eight-month old young'un loaded up in Philly's recently acquired green Pontiac Trans Port mini-van that looked like this one.
Our Friday destination was Matthews, NC to stay with Philly's in-laws. The weekend plans were for Philly and me to go racing and the ladies to shop, tour the area, or whatever people do to waste time when they aren't at a race.
Philly and I set our Saturday sights on the original Petty Museum in Level Cross. We then planned to return to Matthews to load up on tailgating food and beer supply. What we had not anticipated, however, was having a third wheel. Philly's better half said matter-of-factly "We'll have him on Sunday, so y'all get him on Saturday." With our marching orders in hand, we loaded up Woodhead and headed out for the day. After all, I've learned many racing weekends involve living in Plan B.
Woodhead had already been introduced to racing...sort of. The night he was born in The Nooga, I took him his first NASCAR t-shirt - a Dale Jarrett Interstate Batteries yute size. He traveled fine to Level Cross and tolerated us as we soaked in the Petty history displayed in the wood paneled, low ceiling museum.
When we made it back to Matthews, Woodhead was getting a bit fidgety. He'd ridden the better part of four hours strapped in his car seat after having ridden in it for several hours the day before. Yet, Philly and I were on a mission. We still had beer shopping to do.
Food Lion was our destination. They were still heavily involved as a sponsor in NASCAR, had supported Richard Petty's Fan Appreciation Tour in 1992, and was the last grocery store chain in North Carolina that sold Schaefer. We squeezed Woodhead into the kid's seat of the buggy and set sail.
Chips ✔
Loaf bread ✔
Pack of ham ✔
Private label cheese ... product ✔
Little Debbie's ✔
Up next, a careful examination of Food Lion's beer offerings. As we stood there pondering our options, each of the brands in the chiller seemed to holler Pick Me.
We were so engrossed in the process that we took our focus off the buggy behind us. Suddenly, we heard a muffled whoomp followed by crying. We wheeled around to find Woodhead laying atop our smashed loaf of bread and bags of crushed chips.
One thing was certain about Woodhead. That boy loved to eat. He was sizable enough at eight months that we were unable to buckle him into the buggy! Up until that moment, we'd done a yeoman's job of keeping our eye on him. Being distracted by beer, however, nearly cost us dearly. He could have just as easily flipped the other way and landed on the floor.
As Philly picked him to see that all was OK, we noticed a woman across the aisle giving us the stink eye and a tsk, tsk head shake. Choosing to make her opinion known, she stated directly "you put a mark on that boy, and y'all may as well not go home."
I'm pleased to say Woodhead survived his free fall into the grocery mosh pit. I'm also pleased to have seen him grow as a racing fan as well as one who appreciates Schaefer. And he's so smart Jenny. He was inducted into the Schaefer Ring of Honor in Daytona before the 2015 Coke Zero 400.
The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor - a bunch of good-time-havers and ne'er-do-wells - once again had a fantastic year of fun. As best I can tell, The SHOF and SROH were represented at eight NASCAR Cup races, the Daytona qualifying twins, the All Star Race, and a handful of cable-company and truck division races.
The year started with a bang at the Daytona 500. For the first time since 1997, Schaefer HOF co-founder Philly and I were in the seats. Unlike 20 years ago, our experience was on a much grander scale - but with little out-of-pocket spend.
Good fortune plopped us into a friend's winter home free o'charge. No flea bag inn. No overpriced hotel. FREE! - the favorite price of the SHOF. After our arrival on Thursday, we dropped our gear, celebrated with a quick cold one, and made our way to the track.
It was quite the sight to see and experience the completed Daytona Rising renovated facility.
It was also cool to see the twins for the first time on a balmy Florida night.
On Friday, we headed to what has become one of our favorite spots in the area: Racing's North Turn on the beach in Ponce Inlet. The food is fantastic, the service is very polite and prompt, the view is spectacular, the racing history is rich, and the brews are ice cold.
Though the North Turn doesn't serve Schaefer, they do sell good times - and interesting coincidences. After I tweeted the following picture of our beachfront scenery, a guy walked from just a few chairs from us.
"Are you toomuchcountry?"
"Umm, yeah. I guess you'd say that. Why?"
"Holy cow, I only follow about 20 people on Twitter - and you're one of them. I saw your tweet and that Starters koozie. Figured it had to be you."
On our way out the door, we noticed an elderly gentleman signing books and shaking hands at a table near the front door. I stopped to talk with him and learned he was Russ Truelove. Russ is from the northeast and still lives there. In the 1950s, however, he made a handful of trips to Daytona to run the famed beach and road course.
After I returned a bit of history knowledge of my own, Russ realized I wasn't there to simply get a selfie with someone I thought might be famous. He took me to his restored race car outside, and we had a great conversation for about 20 minutes. We chatted about Fish carburetors, the process for measured mile qualifying on the beach, car owner Carl Kiekhaefer (which coincidentally rhymes with Schaefer), how he got number #226, etc.
He also talked about his tremendous tumble on February 26, 1956. #226 flat wiped out on 2/26.
After concluding a fun encounter with Russ, we headed back to the house before we got wiped out at the North Turn. Once home, we found the rest of our crew had rolled in. They were prepared for a night of fun - which we had. The good times, of course, started with a Schaefer.
On race day, we felt the palm fronds provided an element of dignity and class to our tailgating set-up. Don't think so? Well then, that's a you problem.
Though a fair argument can be made that racing is better at other tracks, few if any compete with the sheer speed and spectacle of Daytona.
As has been the case for many years, the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor were well represented at Charlotte's version of Speedweeks in May.
Woodhead, 2015 Schaefer Ring of Honor inductee, enjoyed Schaefer at the NASCAR All Star Race the week before the Coca-Cola 600.
We enjoyed hot passes for the 600 weekend thanks to a new acquaintance of SHOFer Cuba. Like many of us, Cuba usually just settles in before a plane's departure. But on a flight from Texas to North Carolina, he struck up a conversation with his seatmate. After some small talk, bada bing, bada boom, he learned his seatmate was involved with NASCAR. A couple of days later, he arranged for Cuba and his contingent to get hot passes for the weekend. Mighty fortuitous.
Though plenty of other drink options were available, Schaefer had its own dedicated cooler. And what better way to identify the designated cooler than with bacon tape!
Schaefer is the perfect thirst quenching complement to a good ol' fashioned low country boil.
Among our new guests at the 600 in 2016, was SHOFer Rookie's Uncle Joey. Though he was new to our group and a Cup track, he arrived ready to roll with his Kyle Busch swag.
Hard to believe 2017 will the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Schaefer tradition and resulting SHOF and SROH. Some mighty good friendships have been developed with this crowd.
Rookie wasted no time after the 600 in continuing the Schaefer tradition at the beach near Wilmington NC with a few of his friends.
One of the challenges for the SHOF is the increasing scarcity of Schaefer. I don't travel as much as I once did; therefore, opportunities to bootleg Schaefer in a suitcase have dwindled significantly. Both Bruton and Philly, however, were able to leverage their far-reaching networks to have folks bring the Schaefer to them in 2016.
Schaefer isn't all about racing. Schaefer Hall of Famers often find other varied ways to enjoy it. For instance, Bruton enjoyed Schaefer on the links...
...out on the boat dropping a line...
...and on opening day of Georgia Bulldogs football season.
Though Schaefer isn't all about racing, who's kidding who. It's mainly about racing.
Four SHOFers returned to Daytona for July's Coke 400.
This guy wouldn't sit down and kept blocking my view. I started to have a word with him. But since he was a fellow SHOFer, I let it slide.
Labor Day weekend was a true treat for me. From the mid 1980s through 2000, I went to a handful of races that were tagged as part of the Winston Million incentive program. As tough as it was for a driver to win 3 of the 4 biggies, it was even tougher for me to attend 3 of the 4.
The program has long been discontinued, but I accomplished my own version of winning the Winston Million in 2016 by attending the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and the Southern 500 at Darlington. I embraced the old school, throwback theme for the weekend by breaking out some old racing gear from days gone by.
I'd only been to one other race at Darlington, and the 2016 Southern 500 was my first legit Labor Day weekend race at the track. Adding to the excitement was our privilege to walk the garage and pits from stem to stern both days.
The highlight of our walkabout was easily meeting Leonard, Delano, Len and Eddie Wood and Richard and Kyle Petty.
And as icing on the cake, we also ran into 8-time Cup champion crew chief and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Inman. None of these encounters had anything to do with Schaefer, but the chance to chat a bit with so many legends ranks right up there with it.
With a few hours to kill before the green flag on Sunday, we returned to our parking spot. A couple of racing and Schaefer noobs parked behind us, and we soon struck up a conversation. They earned a rookie stripe for attending their first race.
We also introduced them to Schaefer. They almost forfeited the opportunity to drink it when one of them said "Never heard of it. Is it a microbrew?"
Their response after a first taste? Same one as we get time after time. "Hmm. It's not that bad."
With our hospitality out of the way, it was soon time to go racing boys! We hiked our sun-scorched selves to our seats near the start-finish line and settled in for an evening of racing dominated by Martin Truex Jr.
Again with this guy! Dude! Please sit down.
"Oh my bad. Need a fresh Schaefer?"
The only currently active father-son, SHOF / SROH combo - Philly and Woodhead - took in the action.
Traveling light, we didn't have the set-up for another low-country boil. As a substitute, some homemade pork rinds washed down well with a cold Schaef.
A few weeks after Darlington, Schaefer Ring of Honor member 200WINZ had the good fortune to run into his longtime idol, The King, at dinner before the fall Dover race.
As the calendar turned to October, the Schaefer HOF had somewhat of an impromptu Most Photogenic contest. Thoughts on a winner?
SHOFer Philly & Lanie at the fall Charlotte race?
...or SHOFer Rookie and Uncle Joey at Talladega? Yikes.
The SHOF closed its 2016 racing adventures with a trip to Martinsville - my first race at the paperclip. As we roamed the garage on Saturday, we had the good fortune to cross paths with Dale Inman again. He, Maurice Petty, and Kyle Petty had been inducted into the Randleman High School Athletic Hall of Fame the night before, and Dale was proudly sporting the ring presented to him.
Though not on our original agenda, we called an audible and chose to hit Saturday's truck race. Cold morning temps rose to reveal a spectacular fall afternoon for racing.
On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a cold one with some folks from South Boston, Virginia...
...and enjoyed it again ourselves high atop the grandstands.
With the racing season completed, I made my annual trip to Newark NJ and New York City. Once again, I enjoyed a Schaefer at The Liberty NYC - just a few clicks from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station. As I ordered it, the bartender said I looked familiar. I told her I'd stopped in a year earlier to enjoy one. Shockingly, she replied "Yeah! You're the guy that travels all over trying to find Schaefer. I remember you!"
I did a bit of research a couple of nights later and learned The Greene Hook in Jersey City had Schaefer as a beer offering. Though I wasn't sure how current the menu was, I figured it was worth an Uber ride to find out. Sure enough, they had several in the chiller. The Schaef was a nice addition to one of their fantastic burgers and fries.
The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor hopes you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
With the calendar now turned to 2017, let's enjoy a new batch of memories with the recently re-branded NASCAR Schaefer Cup... I mean Monster Energy Cup Series.
As always, please let me know if you see Schaefer for sale - or being enjoyed by yourself or others. Reply with a comment here, hit me on Twitter, or email me at toomuchcountry(at)gmail(dot)com.
